In article <3be3e7c7@news.povray.org>, "Rune"
<run### [at] mobilixnetdk> wrote:

>if the instructions at the top of the
>> "crater.pov" is correct, that the "..._dat.pov"
>> should be rendered as a png-file, then I'm forced
>> to use png.
>
>Those comments are not correct. I did say that I would fix them.

Sorry, I thought that you only meant that the reference to the wrong
"crater_dat" file would be corrected.

>According to the others the advantage is that new users can simply render
>crater_dat.pov and then crater.pov and then it'll work (looking apart from
>the crashes, which are of course not supposed to happen), and the user don't
>need to know how to change the output format to a specific format.

If the user doesn't change the output format, the output will always be a
Pict file, since that is the default format on Mac. A new user will have a
tough time finding this problem.

>But
>personally I agree that that advantage is not as big as the disadvantages

Yes. If I have the files "Hill.tga", "Hill.png" and "Hill.pict" in an
folder, then I know it probably is for an imagemapped heightfield, since
all tga are imagemaps, all png are for heightfields, and all picts are the
resulting output. (I choose those names and formats for heightfields and
imagemaps since I don't have any use for tga and png outside Povray)

But should I now forget to use bitmap identifier in the scenefile, then
Povray will not give a syntax error, but will try to use "Hill.pict" as
both heightfield and imagemap, at the same time as it tries to overwrite
it with a new "Hill.pict" (as the output is set to pict). I imagine that
this can cause weird things.

It might be possible that this is a practical shortcut for one's own
scenes, but I can only see problems in having it in scenes that will be
used by others.

-- 
Tom Stone
Domarebacken 42, 14557 Norsborg, Sweden
Phone: Int+46 8 5318 4318, Tel: 08-5318 4318
http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-52256/index.htm

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